Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/627

Rh The first is their christened name, their second a nick, or bye-name, and the third they take upon their inauguration. There is, likewise, another cause of mistake, which is, when two names occur, one of a king, the other the quality of a king only, these are set down as two brothers. For example, Atzbeha is the blessed, or the saint; and I very much suspect, therefore, that Atzbeha and Abreha, said to be two brothers, only mean Abraham the blessed, or the saint; because, in that prince's time, the country was converted to Christianity; Caleb * and Elesbaas, were long thought to be contemporary princes, till it was found out, by inspecting the ancient authors of those times, that this was only the name or quality of blessed, or saint, given to Caleb, in consequence of his expedition into Arabia against Phineas king of the Jews, and persecutor of the Christians.

are four very interesting events, in the course of the reign of these princes. The first and greatest we have already mentioned, the birth of Christ in the 8th year of Bazen. The second is the conversion of Abyssinia to Christianity, in the reign of Abreha and Atzbeha, in the year of Christ 333, according to our account. The third the war with the Jews under Caleb. The fourth, the massacre of the princes on the mountain of Damo. The time and circumstances of all these are well known, and I shall relate them in their turn with the brevity becoming a historian.

ecclesiastical * [† ] writers, rather from attachment to particular systems, than from any conviction that the opinion

they


 * Caleb el Atsbeha, which has been made Elesbaas throwing away the t.

† Surius Tom. 5, d. 24. Oct. Card. Baronius. Tom. 7, Annal. A. C. 522. N. 23.